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Comments from an email 02-05-2000:

There are three groups of investors, all equally victimized by the Brices. The three groups are the Crescendo Investments et al. group, the Bright et al. group and the Stoco et al. group.

The Crescendo group was represented by attorney Leon Simons from Houston. The Crescendo group case went to trial on September 8, 1999 in San Antonio.

September 8, 1999 is the same day that the Austin Police fanned out and began to question the four boys. APD claims to have received confessions on September 17, 1999. No arrests were made. APD simply went home. Nor were the boys informed that they had confessed. APD now admits that it has no confessions.

The Crescendo group returned with a jury verdict on October 5, 1999. The verdict was devastating as the jury found that three top Brice corporate officers and Hugh Scott had engaged in willful, wanton fraud and conspiracy against all 25 Crescendo plaintiffs. The jury also found that the Brices were in control of the corporation at the time of the fraud.

Late on the afternoon of October 5, 1999, Judge Michael Lynch issued four arrest warrants for the boys. They were arrested the following morning.

As such, after 8 long years of stubbornly refusing to "solve" the girls' murders, the day an arrest did come down, it coincided with the issuance of a jury verdict against the employers of the murdered girls. A verdict that found that the Brices et al. had approached numerous people with the intent of immediately stealing their money.

The Bright group was by far the largest, having more than 80 plaintiffs, all investors, all complaining that the Brices had stolen their money, all complaining that the Brices had utilized trust, misrepresentation, and deception to steal their money.

As such, the claims of the Bright group were no different from the claims of the other 32 investors. However, in one critical respect, the Bright group was different. All 80 investors, by far the largest group, was represented by the Austin personal injury firm of Shields and Rusk. Specifically, they were represent by Jeff Rusk, a personal injury lawyer.

Jeff Rusk is not, and has never been, a securities fraud lawyer. But Jeff Rusk does have a previous association with the Brices. It was Jeff Rusk that represented all parents of all murdered girls. And, according to Skip Suraci, in statements he made subsequent to the murders, Jeff Rusk was chosen by all parents before their girls were murdered.

It was Jeff Rusk that took in an astounding $12 million, all without one single court hearing ever taking place. That sum, the $12 million, so astounded a number of lawyers, that they immediately began to question its source. No insurance company would pay out on an intentional act like murder. No insurance company would pay an astounding $12 million. And no Yogurt Shop would have $12 million in coverage. The cost of such a policy would exceed the annual gross revenues of the Yogurt Shop.

Buying such a policy on a site where four girls were subsequently murdered would look ... premeditated.

As soon as the questions arose, so did the use of intimidation, with all intimidation being conducted by Austin attorney Roy Q. Minton. Roy Q. Minton is an unusual lawyer, with an unending fascination with murder and murder trials. But Mr. Minton's unusualness does not end there. Mr. Minton controls prostitution in Central Texas. Mr. Minton is known to be involved in the drug trade. Mr. Minton partners are well known for their high use of cocaine. And Mr. Minton controls the DA, the Austin police, the Texas State Bar and has countless inroads elsewhere.

It was Mr. Minton that represented the 16 year old son of George Christian, LBJ's press secretary, when the young boy calmly walked up to his high school teacher more than 20 years ago and shot the teacher point blank in the head with a rifle. The man was dropped to the floor, instantly dead, as more than 25 classmates looked on in surprise and horror as their school day was about to get underway.

Roy Minton was next to the teacher's body before the police arrived. DA Ronnie Earle never prosecuted the boy, who has since graduated from prep school and college and is now living a productive, unhindered life.

Jeff Rusk handled the 80 investor strong Bright case in a manner entirely different from Len Simons of Houston. Mr. Simons took his case to trial on September 8, 1999. In May of 1999, Jeff Rusk lied to all 80 clients, telling them that Leon Simons had "settled" his clients case for a small sum. Mr. Rusk also lied to his clients, all 80 of them, telling them that they had better settle their case because the Brices were about to take bankruptcy.

The 80 Bright investors, stunned by these surprise announcements, and given a notebook full of releases, signed away their claims for 26 cents on the dollar in May of 1999.

The Crescendo case never settled. It went to trial four months later. The Brices have not declared bankruptcy.

The Stoco case is being handled by Houston attorney Don Taylor. Don decided to sit back and wait to see what was resolved in the other two cases. On Wednesday of this week, Don Taylor and I reached an agreement, allowing as many of the 80 investors who so desire to file interventions in the Stoco suit. The Bright investors will be seeking to set aside the "settlement" engineered by Rusk as fraudulently induced. And they will be suing both Rusk and Minton with the intent of getting a first time look at the $12 million settlement.

Don Taylor agrees that the $12 million does not look like insurance money. And we both agree that we believe the source of the $12 million to be stolen investor funds, not insurance funds.

[ed. reported that $10 million was paid by the store owners, only $2 million came from insurance]

The actions of APD in arresting these four boys on the same day as the murdered girls' employers were found guilty of securities fraud and conspiracy reinforce that belief. We assume that the arrests are designed to unfairly shift the criminal liabilities of those who conducted these murders to these boys ... something they hope can be done in advance of any post judgment discovery into the single largest transaction the Brices ever had until they sold their company for $14 million to Canadian YogunFruz. The $12 million settlement.

The reasoning goes like this. Now that the investors have a judgment, they have ten years to conduct post judgment discovery into all aspects of the Brice's business, including the $12 million settlement. If that happens, if that $12 million Pandora's box is opened before someone is held responsible for these murders, then the opening of that box will saddle the criminal liabilities for these murders on those that conducted them.

Prosecuting this case has always had one major drawback. The graphic nature of the murders. That aspect will be discussed in the next e-mail.